Arsene Wenger today claimed he would relish the prospect of a third place play-off with Chelsea but urged his team to concentrate on beating Newcastle to guarantee their 16th consecutive top-four finish.

If the Gunners win at St James’ Park by a solitary goal on Sunday, score two more than Chelsea and the Blues draw at home to Everton, then there will be an additional match to determine who secures third place and automatic Champions League qualification.

Tottenham manager Andre Villas-Boas insists he is not concerned about Newcastle rolling over against Arsenal despite Alan Pardew’s comments that he did not care if his side lost 4-0.

Spurs must beat Sunderland and hope Arsenal slip up to finish fourth but Wenger insists the Gunners are not looking over their shoulders and are instead focused on usurping Chelsea.

“I would fancy a play-off,” he said. “A play-off exists only if we win [at Newcastle]. So let’s win the game and see what happens. The biggest task is to win the game and not speculate too much on what happens after because the first compulsory thing we face is to win on Sunday.

“The pressure is big, of course. But I always said the worst thing in my job is to play without any pressure. Sometimes you think it would be nice to have a game with no pressure but when you have one you think, ‘let’s get it back, it’s so boring’. What would be terrible would be to go to Newcastle and have nothing at stake for us. We have what we wanted so let’s just finish the job.

“I had the feeling it could go to the last day. When we were seven points behind, I knew we would all be happy if it went to the last day. We are in a position where nobody expected us to be.

“Our destiny is in our hands, our fate in our hands and that’s what you fight for in the game. It’s a game that we will now want to win but at least we fought back to be in a position where we master our own fate.”

Arsenal can draw on the positive experience of last season when they secured fourth place on the final day with victory at West Brom and Wenger said: “I believe more than the experience from last year is that we are on a very strong run.”

Newcastle secured their Premier League survival with victory over Queens Park Rangers last week and Pardew said: “I do not really care if Arsenal win 4-0, if I am honest. I’m sure Spurs will but I only care that our fans enjoy themselves.”

Pardew this week brushed off his remarks as a joke and Villas-Boas said today: “I think it was blown a little bit out of proportion. He can do whatever he wants but we expect a Newcastle side that is extremely competitive. In their last game of the season, I would expect them to do their job properly.

“Newcastle’s objectives have been achieved but everybody wants to finish the season on a high and Newcastle will be competitive.

“They have gone from a pressure position to a position of comfort. That can serve as a relief for the players and they can express themselves in a different way. Both games will be very competitive and anything can happen. Our job is to get three points against Sunderland. What happens in the other game, we will know from the emotions coming from within the ground. We just have to do our job.”

If Spurs beat Sunderland they will finish the season with 72 points, which has been enough for a top-four finish in every Premier League season except 2007-08.

Villas-Boas does not believe qualifying for the Champions League is crucial in attracting top players to White Hart Lane this summer.

The Spurs manager is confident Gareth Bale will stay if Spurs are in the Europa League and would not rule out a move for Barcelona forward David Villa.

“He [Villa] is one of the world’s best strikers,” said Villas-Boas. “This club is very active in the last weeks of the transfer window so you can see speculation is growing here and there.

“I am not sure if [finishing in the top four] is the key to attracting players. Tottenham have great tradition in football and we have a group of players that attract other quality players to come here.

“In my opinion, making it or not does not change anything in the way you set-up. If you do not make it, there is Europa League football which is exciting.

“It will be a great achievement to finish fourth and get into the Champions League but we have to strengthen for next season to be ready to achieve a higher points tally.”

Villas-boas confirmed Benoit Assou-Ekotto has returned to training after missing last weekend’s victory at Stoke and is in contention for Sunday.